I remember Halloween...

The prototypical Halloween song, against which all other Halloween songs are measured. Search for "Halloween song" in the dictionary and you'll find a link to this track.

Set to The Nightmare Before Christmas for your goulish pleasure...

The Misfits
"Halloween"

Zombies!

What's Halloween without a few zombies?

I still think that Scientist Rids the World of the Evil Curse of the Vampires is the most criminally overlooked Halloween album of all time. This is possibly because dub reggae pairs well with massive amounts of weed, and weed does not pair well with things that freak you out.

Not weed that packs any punch, anyway.

Scientist
"The Corpse Rises"

Resistance is futile

Before discovering Midnight Masses, I had no desire to create a tragic, gothic-tinged post-apocalyptic film about the slow extermination of the human race. Now, I want to make such a film so I can get this band to write the soundtrack.

Creepy as all hell. In a good way.

Midnight Masses
"Burial Song"
Daytrotter session video

The Halloween Spirit

I like Halloween. I like Halloween partially because it segues so nicely into Dia de los Muertos, which I'm also particularly fond of. And, in celebration thereof, the next week will be a celebration of all things creepy/creepy-crawly, undead, macabre and/or otherwise unsettling.

We begin with Danny Elfman's classic pre-Tim Burton band proving that an 80's sound is in no way incompatible with The Halloween Spirit. And Tim Burton animated features.

Oingo Boingo
"Dead Man's Party"

Loose, free, and just shy of OK

This track is pretty much the voice of Shilpa Ray. That voice evokes Nina Simone and all the old singers Amy Winehouse channels, voices emerging from whiskey, cigarettes and nightlife with a wry smile and a wealth of experience behind their eyes. This voice, I am convinced, has eyes.

The music almost seems too cheerful for this voice, like a well-meaning friend who just wants to help but, somehow, can't manage to. I figure an acoustic version might be a better match for this voice, but that's just picking at the nits.

And Shilpa Ray's voice is beyond that.

Shilpa Ray and Her Happy Hookers
?

Out and about in NYC

Of course, "uptown" is Harlem.

Gene Krupa was the odd combination of swing band leader and drummer (incidentally, the guy that trained Peter Criss) but the focus here is Anita O'Day and "Roy" - her voice, his trumpet and their interaction.

All quite priceless.

Gene Krupa (ft. Anita O'Day)
"Let Me Off Uptown"

In the sun

The video is like something out of a Wes Anderson flick, the obvious flickering of home movies and that late-50s-to-early-60s combination of confidence and conformity.

The Daytrotter version of this track is acoustic, and the melody seems to flow a bit better on that version. Then again, the video's vintage style might fall a bit flat set to non-electricity, and that would be a shame.

I rather like that vintage style.

Bad Veins
"Gold and Warm"

Not from around these parts

I learned of the new Blitzen Trapper album through their Daytrotter session.

The first time I heard this song it was 6:57 AM-ish and I was coasting into downtown Houston, with the sun coming up through skyscrapers and the knowledge that it was 85-90 degrees outside. It reminds me of being dazed and not-quite-there in the Southern heat every time, a feeling the video captures beautifully.

Blitzen Trapper
"Black River Killer"

Hindsight is priceless

Self delusion can be problematic, and one gets the sense that Jenny Owen Youngs is no stranger to the consequences of excessive wishful thinking.

Thing is, I don't get the feeling that past experience is going to alter her behavior much. That's just not how it works with her, something most evident in the initial comparison of love to a tumor. After all, it's not like you choose to get a tumor, after all. (Yes there are risk factors and whatnot, but you never really CHOOSE-choose, if you know what I mean.)

Anyway, in a pop universe that tends to focus on melodrama and self-pity, this song is a wry, knowing, yet totally committed addition to the ocean of songs dealing with lovesickness.

And still manages to be quite funny.

Jenny Owen Youngs
"Fuck Was I"

Down on the river

As a city kid, I have an awkward relationship with the natural world. As a young lad I had mixed feelings about Tom Bombadil, the representation of nature in Lord of the Rings and the obvious source of the band's name, and not much has changed since then.

Thing is, oftentimes it's what we don't quite understand that proves the most fascinating.

Bombadil
"On The River"


This is good, but "Kate and Kelsey" off of the Daytrotter session is amazing. It just doesn't have a video.

Shine on, you crazy diamond

I like cities, they've been good to me.

You have to remember, though, that any city worth its concrete will always have something else you could be doing, somewhere, and sometimes that means you might overindulge. Oftentimes caffeine is involved. And then there you are, exhausted and trying to sleep but physically incapable.

It feels not unlike this.

Glass Ghost
"Like a Diamond"

Tripping

Amazing that this is a demo.

I've bounced around enough that I have a fairly complicated relationship with the concept of "home," but I imagine a roadtrip around California with 15 of your closest, most entertaining friends might sound like this, and would be a close approximation of the feeling.

This sort of music comes out of warm weather, wide open spaces and overflowing companionship, love and togetherness and a belief that, whatever happens, everything will work out for the best - the exact opposite of, for example, Bon Iver hunkering down in a cabin, in the north, by himself.

Not better, or worse, just different.

Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes
"Home"

Love, and how it hurts

The subject matter is more telling than the delivery in this TV performance. They're presented in a coquettish, playful way but both of these songs are about betrayal and abandonment, and you get the feeling that Ms. Washington might now a thing or two about that.

Whether she killed a man or not.

Dinah Washington
"Lover Where Can You Be?/Send Me to the 'Lectric Chair"

Ahimsa

To remedy the relative dearth of reggae of late, here's a solid, classic cut with a nostalgia-inducing video to go with it.

I wonder if this is from a movie. Not enough, you know, to look into it or anything.

But still.

Prince Far I
"Throw Away Your Gun"

At least we've got our HEALTH

This is like the Freudian death drive & libido conflated and turned into music. Reminiscent of nights out at the DNA Lounge - loud & unrepentant beat-driven music, a few drinks, and an ocean of pretty people turned to the dark side.

Good times, good times...

HEALTH
"Die Slow"

Travelin' man

My favorite piece of music in The Red Violin is the traveling music of the gypsies as they made their way from continental Europe to England. No disrespect to the inimitable Mr. Pop, but the gypsies had much lust for life - there's an immediate exuberance in the music matched only by the hint of impending danger.

Not for those with an aversion to accordions or gypsy music.

Good stuff otherwise.

A Hawk and a Hacksaw
"The Man Who Sold His Beard"

Love

Sometimes things are notsogood - everything falls apart, the center (and the periphery) do not hold, etc. etc. etc. (Big love to Yeats).

Those notsogood days need songs like this, all light and optimism and warm fuzzy encouragement, the sonic equivalent of a good long soak in the tub.

And God knows we all need one of those every so often.

Sour
"日々の音色" (Hibi no neiro)

Down

Tanya Morgan is a group, not a person.

A group that makes smooth, agreeable hip-hop with the slightest of twists to keep things non-boring. This particular track has an every-so-slight old-style Motown edge to it, and the video has a clean and classic vibe.

Nice. Nice enough.

Tanya Morgan
"So Damn Down"



PS - Want to change your mouth? Yeah. There's an app for that. Not sure where they sell the straps though...

City streets

I like cities that have a street level - odd shopfronts, adverts for strange and amusing things, random people and their pets/costumes/eccentricities. San Francisco, Buenos Aires, not to mention Mexico City and Bangkok all have good street level living. Houston does not, and it's something I've been missing.

This track by Pipas sounds something like the oddly contented bastard child of Belle & Sebastian and the Stone Roses.

The video, unsurprisingly, features a city at street level.

Pipas
"Riff Raff"

Brave New World

Happy Columbus Day! Feliz Dia de la Raza!

Tito Puente is best known as "el Rey de los Timbales" but this proves he was a mean hand on the vibraphone as well.

In a moment of boricua pride, I feel obligated to point out he was a proud New York-born-and-bred Puerto Rican (he passed away in 2000).

Brave New World that has such people in it indeed.

Tito Puente, et al.
"Tema a Maria Cervantes"

A cause without a rebellion

The way that The Sounds are trying to channel Blondie in this video actually had to be pointed out. Probably because the sound is very un-Blondie.

Another song I should probably find a bit too poppy and commercial-as-in-advertisement to enjoy, especially as the rebel mission seems more along the lines of Pink than, say, Bikini Kill.

But I like it for some reason.

So here you go.

The Sounds
"Song With A Mission"

Don't forget to smile

I discovered Mia Riddle through her Daytrotter session and have been transfixed by this song for the last couple of days. So much so that I felt compelled to post two versions of it. It speaks to hope in the middle of overwhelming exhaustion, of love while things slowly fall apart. I can relate to that.

Mia Riddle
"Grandchildren"

Fired up

Yeah, I likes me some cello.

The song is so grand, so full of purpose and has so much weight that it's a bit odd to see how Ms. Madigan gets into the performance, a kick and some headbanging thrown in with her gruff vocals.

All in all, though, this song is just dying for a cinematic sequence of landscapes, romance and high adventure, complete with accents, period costumes and swordfights. As in, more than one.

Bonfire Madigan
"Lady Saves"

Loess is more

This sounds like a Boards of Canada outtake.
Yes, it's that awesome. And, yes, it's that awesome in that particular way.

Given the grainy, black-and-white old-school air force footage I find it works best viewed tired as all hell late at night, alt-Tabbing back and forth between the video and the news.

(Though I think that says more about the news of late than the video.)

Loess
"Nomon"

Subtlety

You'd expect hardcore politics and a lot of anger from a hip hop performer named "Ayatollah," but the tunes are more Thievery Corporation than Dead Prez, more of a call to awareness rather than revolution.

Maybe that's the point, appropriating the term so it becomes less powerful, kind of how "queer" is no longer "strange" but "gay." If so there's still quite a ways to go.

But, hey, a journey of a thousand miles and all that, no?

Ayatollah
"Listen"

Killer ladies

Out of sync, but we're here for the music, right?

Classic track from the mid 90's Britpop/shoegaze/etc. scene. The music has actually held up quite well, much more so than the fashion.

I can see Be Your Own Pet doing a cover of this...

Lush
"Ladykillers"

Cab Calloway PSA

Kind of like "Reefer Madness" except intrinsically good (instead of so-bad-it's-good) and with a go-for-broke syncopated rhythm to boot.

Come to think of it, only vaguely related to "Reefer Madness."

Cab Calloway
"Reefer Man"

Mizu

It's hip hop, true, but leave it to a Japanese MC to come up with a track both positively adorable and decidedly not ridiculous. The Hello Kitty of hip hop, if you will, except with way more street cred.

Just downright happy music, with happy cartoons and a happy ending, and the world needs more happy music, right?

Shing02
"Love You Like Water"

This song has one word

You don't expect subtlety from a band called "The Gits." Nossir, this here is nothing more and nothing less than straight-ahead punk-rock mayhem.

And running at 1:38, it doesn't even need a video.

The Gits
"Drunks"

Radio and music

Although this band was featured in the Marie Antoinette, the film, I missed them at the time because I didn't get around to seeing it.

For me this is like the dark electric shine The Cure, The Smiths and Joy Division gave to the 80's.

Except shorter and bittersweet-er.

The Radio Dept.
"The Worst Taste in Music"

"Petros" means "rock"

And, yeah, the degree to which Pete Rock does, indeed, rock is not small.

The video editing is pretty basic, but we're all about the music here, right?

And there's no denying Pete Rock's skill in putting together this moody-yet-upbeat instrumental hip hop track.

Were I an MC I would create some words for the track, maybe a story about jazz-happy vampires in 1920's New Orleans, or maybe Prohibition-era bootleggers in Harlem. Something dark and old-school.

No rush, though. It stands quite well on its own.

Pete Rock
"Smooth Sailing"